The Portuguese coach favours a 4-2-3-1 formation with Bale, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Aaron Lennon all providing support to lone striker Jermain Defoe, with the insurance of two holding midfielders behind them.

This has allowed Bale the freedom to express himself in attack and the Wales international has praised the tactical switch, claiming it suits his style.

Bale told The Daily Mirror: "We're not playing the same formation as last year - it's a different way of playing.

"It's great. You get to attack more, which is always good. You don't have to run too much - although you still have to run back. As long as we're enjoying our football, then we can show what we can do. "He [Villas-Boas] is here to build a team and it's a new way of playing for us.

"Everybody should understand that it takes time and I think there has been an improvement in every game and you've seen that against Reading.

"I think everybody just has to be patient. As players we're learning different things every day so it's positive for the club. Things will come and it'll start to click like it did against Reading and hopefully we can push on from there."

Defoe has also benefited from the new system, netting twice in Sunday’s 3-1 win at Reading and Bale has praised the contribution of the England international.

The winger added: "He's looking sharp, isn't he? Bit greedy, as normal. But that's him. It's great for him and great for the team. As long as somebody's scoring, I don't think any of us mind."

Tottenham endured a similar start to the season last year and Bale sees the Reading result as the perfect way to kick start their campaign this time around.

"It was massively important to get that win," he admitted. "It was one of the those games that kick-starts our season now.

"We're not too far behind everybody and we played some great stuff. Now the plan is to do the same last season.

"With the not-so-great start we had, we're in a similar position and, as we've also been there, we did it last year - there's no reason why we can't do it this year.

"We'll be going out there to win every game and hopefully we can do that."